The Morgan Hill Times: After accident, city assesses mid-block crosswalks
Nov 12, 2009
By Natalie Everett – Staff Writer
Traffic engineers are assessing the city’s mid-block crosswalks for safety upgrades after a bicycle accident killed a Morgan Hill man last month.
One of the first changes: The city will post a sign directing northbound cyclists who exit the West Little Llagas Creek bike trail to dismount and walk their bicycle across the mid-block crosswalk on West Edmundson Avenue.
Rory Tomasello, 22, was struck by an SUV in that crosswalk on Oct. 23, according to police. Tomasello, who wasn’t wearing a helmet, later died from injuries to his brain, police and his family said.
Such a sign is posted about 100 feet from the trail’s exit on the north side, visible by cyclists traveling south. But Tomasello was traveling north, and there isn’t a similar sign on the south side of the street that, visible by Tomasello if he had exited the trail.
Witnesses didn’t say whether Tomasello had exited the trail or which direction he was traveling on Edmundson, Sgt. Jerry Neumayer said.
“It looks as if they first noticed him when he was in the middle of the island,” Neumayer said in an e-mail.
City traffic engineer David Giddleson said there were plans to put up a dismount sign on both sides of Edmundson. He didn’t know why that didn’t happen.
